Camping at Monteagle, Tennessee

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Monteagle is located about 50 miles northwest of Chattanooga, off Interstate 24. The town's location in the foothills of East Tennessee and right off a major regional highway make it a convenient area for outdoors enthusiasts to explore the region and camp. The parks, forests and privately owned facilities around Monteagle support a full range of camping styles.

RV Camping

All of the privately operated campgrounds in the area, such as the Manchester KOA (koa.com) and Laurel Trails Campground (laureltrailscampgroundtn.parks.officelive.com) support RVs and trailers, as do some public facilities like Tims Ford State Park (tn.gov). Full hook-ups are common at the private campgrounds, but many public campsites have only water and electric hook-ups, or just water. A well-equipped RV campground, like the Manchester KOA, is essentially a camping resort and will have features like a swimming pool, Wi-Fi access, camp store and even a hot tub and sauna.

Car Camping

Most of the campgrounds in the area are mixed RV-and-tent campgrounds, and campgrounds like the Manchester KOA have separate, dedicated tent areas for drive-in car campers. Dedicated tent camping areas are usually more thickly wooded than strips of RV parking-space style campsites. At the campgrounds of Tims Ford State Park, a car camper simply parks a vehicle on the RV strip and pitches a tent in the adjacent grass area.

Backcountry Camping

The Monteagle area has two venues for backcountry camping. Visitors can enjoy the designated camping areas off the hiking trails in Grundy Forest, which is an annex of South Cumberland State Park. Campers in Grundy Forest hike in to their campsites, have no facilities and must adhere to "leave no trace" standards. Another choice is boat-in camping, which is available at Tims Ford State Park. The Turkey Creek Campground is spread out among six islands in the park, has no facilities and accessible only by boat.

Reservations

Developed campsites at Tims Ford State Park operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Permits are required to camp at Turkey Creek and Grundy Forest, and these are available on a first-come, first-serve basis through the relevant state park authorities. Those campgrounds operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (tva.gov) accept reservations, as do all of the privately operated campgrounds, like Laurel Trails Campground.